


The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth (Enemies to Lovers!College!Calum Hood)

by ukulelecal



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Arguing, Calum Hood smut, Drinking, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:55:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29660685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ukulelecal/pseuds/ukulelecal
Summary: In which you and Calum really hate each other, but then you really don't.
Relationships: calum hood/reader
Kudos: 3





	The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth (Enemies to Lovers!College!Calum Hood)

**Author's Note:**

> hiii this was originally posted on my tumblr, ukulelecal, in like 2019 and i just wanted to repost it here lol enjoy

Introduction to Shakespeare. Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:45 AM.   
The class seemed interesting enough. Just two days a week, didn’t require you to wake up early. Even if it was terrible, you could power through a semester of it. You weren’t worried.   
When the first day of class rolled around, you walked into the classroom with curious eyes, taking in the atmosphere, and scoured the desks for a promising seat. You didn’t want to sit in the very back, nor did you want to sit in the front row, so you chose a seat in the middle, close to the door with a good view of the board.   
More people filed into the room as you took your laptop out of your backpack, occupying empty seats and chatting among themselves. You subtly examined your new peers as they came in, familiarizing yourself with the faces that you’d be seeing around for the semester. Some of them you would grow to like, you knew, but you also knew there were others that you would inevitably grow a distaste for. And that was all a part of the college experience. Friends and enemies. The professor came into the room as well, an older gentleman that looked friendly enough.  
The clock struck 11:45, signalling the start of class.   
The professor stood up from his desk, moving to stand in the middle of the classroom.   
“Good morning, class! Welcome to Introduction to Shakespeare. My name is Mr. Nolan and I’ll be your professor for the semester.”   
Mr. Nolan proceeded to go over the syllabus for the course, expectations, needed materials. Typical things for the first day of class. He then announced that you would go around the room, say your name, major and an interesting fact about yourself. You had to physically restrain yourself from rolling your eyes. Not that you hadn’t expected your first week of the new school year to be filled with cheesy ice breakers and awkward introductions, but you could never bring yourself to enjoy the silly things.   
The class each took a turn rattling off their name and whatever fact about themselves popped into their mind first. You only half listened, not exactly caring about Maggie the environmental science major who went backpacking in Nepal over the summer or Alex the finance major who speaks six languages. You did the same when it came to be your turn, letting the basic information about yourself roll off your tongue with ease.  
It was finally the last person’s turn to speak, and you nearly breathed a sigh of relief that you’d finally be moving on.  
“I’m Calum, I’m an English major. Interesting fact about me is that I’m not interesting.”  
Oh God, you thought to yourself. One of those people, who refuse to share just one simple thing about themselves as if everyone isn’t going to forget what you said by tomorrow, or as if they’re some mysterious enigma that leaves people wondering. The only thing you were wondering, was if this Calum boy was really as obnoxious as he was making himself out to be.   
Mr. Nolan, not in the mood to argue with him on the first day, thanked the class for sharing and announced that he would now be administering a pretest to check everyone’s knowledge on Shakespeare; not graded, he made sure to specify.   
The test wasn’t too difficult, only a few questions on translating old English into modern English, general knowledge about popular Shakespeare books, and the like. 1:00 came around quickly, and your first class of the school year was officially over.   
You gathered up your belongings and dropped the test off at Mr. Nolan’s desk on your way out. You had a little bit until your next class started, so you decided to grab a quick bite to eat from the coffee shop on campus on your way. With a bagel in hand, you started off toward your destination.   
…   
It was Wednesday before you knew it.   
The first two days of the school year had gone pretty well. Nothing to complain about, at least not yet. You were hoping for a good year, and things were looking good thus far, but you knew you couldn’t get your hopes up within the first few days of school.   
Now it was time to return to Introduction to Shakespeare, and you plopped yourself down in the same seat that you had sat in on the first day, the seat you figured would become your unofficial assigned seat.  
When class started, Mr. Nolan announced you would be going over some important background information on the Elizabethan era, William Shakespeare himself, including his early life, early works and other facts, and terminology for his works. You paid close attention and took notes, knowing that understanding this information would likely be helpful in understanding the rest of the curriculum.   
At some point, Mr. Nolan asked the class to turn to the people around you and discuss what you learned to make sure everyone understood, asking each other questions if needed. You slowly turned to face the people next to you, not planning on saying anything. The others spoke up, but not about Shakespeare.   
“Alpha Sig’s kick off party is on Friday night. You guys coming?” A boy asked. You weren’t exactly friends with him, but you knew about him. Everyone did. His name was Charlie, president of the fraternity in question. You had a few classes together in the past.  
“Honestly, Charlie, do you think I’d miss it after all the fun last year?” A girl who you didn’t recognize answered.  
The fraternity Alpha Sigma Phi - or Alpha Sig, as everyone called it - was known on campus for throwing the wildest parties, and their beginning of the year party was always said to be the best. You preferred to skip out on them, much to all your friends dismays. They begged and begged you to go every year, but you never gave in. Something about being in a loud, crowded house surrounded by drunk strangers didn’t sound appealing to you. But, skipping out on the fun made you responsible for making sure your sloshed roommates got back to the dorm safely and dealing with their inevitable hangovers in the morning.  
Charlie turned to you, shooting you a grin  
“How about you, Y/N? Are you coming?”  
Hell no, you thought to yourself, but instead you gave the fraternity president a shrug.  
“Maybe,” you responded lightly.   
“Come on, it’ll be fun!” He pestered, leaning forward for emphasis. “You should at least drop by for a little while. Hood already told me he’s coming again this year, so it should be a good time.”   
“Hood?” You asked, eyebrows furrowing slightly. You hadn’t heard of him before.  
“Come on, Calum Hood! He’s right over there, the guy on his phone,” the girl announced, cocking her head towards the back corner of the room.   
Calum. That was the English major who made the obnoxious “I’m not interesting” comment on the first day, you remembered.   
You glanced over in that direction, spotting a head of dark curls tilted downwards towards his phone. The fact that he was going to be there was certainly not helping Charlie’s case of convincing you to go, not after the impression he gave you. Chances of you even seeing him if you were to go were slim, considering the amount of people that would be attending, but you still weren’t exactly looking to put yourself in a position where it was possible that you would encounter him.   
“Why is it relevant that he’s going again?” You questioned, curious as to why Charlie felt the need to tell you. Charlie and the girl shared a look, grinning at each other.  
“He’s the life of the party, you know,” he answered, returning his gaze back to you.   
“No, I don’t know.” You raised an eyebrow at the fraternity president. “What’s so great about him?”  
“Seriously? You haven’t heard anything about him at all?”  
You shook your head sharply, getting tired of Charlie dodging your questions.   
“Beer pong champion. Keg stand record holder. Bringer of weed. He’s basically Alpha Sig’s best friend.”  
“He’s not in Alpha Sig?” You furrowed your eyebrows. Guy like that seems to you like a total frat boy. Charlie shook his head.  
“Nope. Not in any fraternity. Just a party animal.”  
“I don’t think I’ve ever been at any relevant party that he hasn’t been at,” the girl chimed in. “He always goes. I don’t even know how he manages good grades.” You snorted at that.  
“How can you be so sure he gets good grades?”  
“He does,” Charlie argued, his voice a bit sharp. “He’s a good friend of mine. I know for a fact he can spend all night partying and then spend the whole next day, hungover as hell, writing an essay and get an A on it. He doesn’t strike anyone as the type to be an English major, but he’s really smart, actually.”  
You appreciated Charlie defending his friend, but the fact that Calum was smart didn’t impress you in the slightest. He was still obnoxious, and apparently a crazy partygoer. There were more things to consider in a person than just their intelligence, and everything else you knew about him was not appealing to you.  
Class came to an end, and you made your way back to the coffee shop for another bagel before your next class. When the class ended, you headed back to your dorm to relax for a bit, possibly take a nap if your roommates were quiet.  
When you arrived back, you found that both of your roommates, Mallory and Carmen, were sat on their beds, typing away on their laptops. They both looked up at the sound of the door opening before returning their gazes back to their screens.  
“Hey Y/N,” Mallory offered, typing for another moment before closing her laptop and setting it on the bed next to her. “You done with class for the day?”  
You nodded, dropping your backpack at the foot of your bed. The room had two sets of bunk beds; four beds in total, despite the fact that there were three of you. You and Mallory both took the bottom bunks, and Carmen slept on the bed right above you. You lowered yourself onto your bed, bending down to take your shoes off.  
“So,” Mallory continued, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and resting her elbows on her knees. “You coming with us to Alpha Sig’s party?”  
You snorted, shaking your head.  
“You know me better than that, Mal.” You paused to toss your shoes to the side. “It’s funny you ask, though. Charlie Romano asked me if I was going during Intro to Shakespeare today.”  
You heard Carmen’s laptop snap shut above you, and she climbed down to sit next to you on your bunk.   
“Dude, the Alpha Sig president basically invited you to go. How could you not?” Carmen demanded, nudging your shoulder.   
“He did not invite me. He simply asked if I was going.”  
“Did he try to pester you into going at all?” Mallory questioned, cocking her head to the side. She knew the answer when you stayed silent, and she grinned slowly.  
“So what if he did? He probably just wants to get as many people there as possible. He doesn’t actually care if I go or not.”  
Carmen sighed, shaking her head.   
“You know what? Forget about Charlie. Who cares if he wants you to go or not? Mal and I want you to go, and as your roommates and best friends, we matter more,” she explained, glancing over at Mallory for backup.   
“Seriously, Y/N, you’ve never gone. I promise it’s always a good time. And if you’re miserable, we can leave early and come back here and binge Queer Eye.”   
You sighed, mulling it over in your head. As much as you didn’t want to go, you knew it wasn’t good to spend your entire college career cooped up in your dorm. How could you say you had the true college experience if you didn’t attend at least one frat party?  
Flickering your eyes back and forth between Mallory and Carmen, you sighed again and nodded.  
“Fine, fine, I’ll go.”  
The two girls cheered, Carmen throwing her arms around you while Mallory ran over from her bed to do the same.   
“It’ll be fun, Y/N, we promise.”  
…   
Friday night rolled around, and you, Carmen and Mallory were in your dorm getting ready for Alpha Sig’s party.  
You put the final touches on your makeup and straightened out your skirt, glancing over your appearance in the mirror. You weren’t looking to impress anyone, but still wanted to look good for yourself.   
“Ready to go?” Carmen asked, flipping her dark hair over shoulder. You and Mallory both nodded, and the three of you headed out the door of your dorm and made your way to the Alpha Sig frat house.  
The party was already in full swing, music blaring, and you could practically feel the ground shake with the beat under your feet. You shared a look with your friends, but the look they gave you back forced you to walk inside the frat house with them.  
As soon as you opened the door and looked inside, you wanted to run back to your dorm and get to the binge watching Queer Eye session that Mallory brought up, but the girl grabbed your arm and dragged you further into the crowd. There were familiar faces here and there, but there was also a good majority of strangers you had never seen before, and likely would never see again.   
“Want to get a drink?” Mallory yelled over the music, turning her head back to look at you and Carmen. You both nodded; maybe a little alcohol would help you get through this thing. She lead you into the kitchen, where the drinks were and thankfully a bit less crowded than the rest of the house, and you each helped yourselves.   
You quickly took a sip of your drink, needing it to take effect as soon as possible. You then followed Mallory and Carmen out of the kitchen and into the crowd, and you made sure to stick close by your friends. You eventually found a space for the three of you to stand and chatted while sipping on your drinks.  
“See, this isn’t so bad, is it, Y/N?” Carmen asked, smiling at you from behind her cup. You shrugged.  
“We’ve hardly been here ten minutes,” you answered blandly. “I haven’t decided yet.”  
Mallory rolled her eyes at that, nudging your shoulder.  
“I’m keeping my promise. If you’re miserable, we can leave. But at least try to have fun, okay?” She pleaded, and you glanced down. You hated disappointing your friends. You didn’t want to ruin their fun, part of the reason you didn’t want to come in the first place. So, for their sake, you nodded slowly.  
“Alright. Sorry.”  
The two brushed it off, and you continued to chat with your friends until you felt a hand come down on your shoulder. You jumped, quickly turning to see who it was. You weren’t sure how to react when you saw Charlie Romano, drunkenly grinning at you.  
“I knew you would show up!” He slurred. “Can’t believe this is your first Alpha Sig party!”  
“I can’t believe it either,” you grumbled under your breath, far too quiet for him to hear over the loud music. You continued in a voice loud enough for him to hear. “These two convinced me.” You nodded in the direction of Mallory and Carmen. Charlie laughed, right into your ear.   
“Good job. She seemed to pretty adamant on not coming.” Charlie suddenly gasped. “Hey, you need to meet Hood! Maybe he’ll convince you to come more often.”  
You highly doubted that, and you really did not want to meet this boy. You cringed as Charlie called him over, and the tall boy carelessly pushed his way through the crowds to get to his friend. It was clear he had had a few as well, but based on what you had heard about him, you assumed he could hold his alcohol pretty well.   
“Hey, Romano,” he greeted, eyes falling on you and your friends. “You having a foursome?”  
You scoffed at the comment, staring at him exasperatedly. Why would he ever say such a thing, jump to that conclusion right away? It was disgusting, and you were about ready to smack him for it.   
“Really?” You snapped before Charlie could answer, giving him your best glare. “Why would you say that?”   
Calum rolled his eyes, taking a swig of his drink before gazing at you.  
“It was a joke, princess.”  
“Don’t call me-”  
“As I was saying,” Charlie interrupted, putting his hands up. “Y/N here is in our Intro to Shakespeare class, and has never been to an Alpha Sig party. And she said she didn’t know you. Wanted her to meet the Keg King himself for her first time.”   
Calum snorted and looked you up and down. You had to physically restrain yourself from kicking his ass right then and there. You were probably overreacting about the whole ordeal, but you weren’t in the best mood from being forced to come to a party and now being forced to talk to the one person you didn’t want to see. Calum had done nothing but make bad impressions of himself and you didn’t want to let him think you were going to tolerate his behavior.   
Carmen and Mallory watched from their spots, unsure of their part in the conversation. They did know, however, that they would have to step in if you got too upset with the Keg King.   
“Clearly,” he grumbled. “You ever leave your dorm besides to go to class, princess?”  
Your mouth dropped open, a cold glare gracing your features. He was just being a jerk at that point, and you felt your distaste for him only grow.   
“Excuse me?” You gaped, fully prepared to defend yourself. “I’ll have you know, asshole, I-”  
“Whoa, whoa,” Charlie blurted out, drunkenly stepping in between you. “Let’s not get out of hand here.”  
“Nothing is out of hand, mate,” Calum said, returning your icy glare. “I think we’re done here.”   
With that, he turned on his heel and walked off to rejoin the party, leaving the poor drunk Charlie and your friends confused as to what the hell just happened, and you in a worse mood than before.   
Watching Queer Eye in your dorm sounded pretty damn good at that moment.   
“Geez, that was hell to watch,” Charlie grumbled under his breath, and you weren’t sure if you were supposed to hear him or not. He looked at you and your friends, giving an awkward nod. “I’ll leave you be.”  
He walked away with that, leaving you and your friends alone again. You huffed, turning to the girls who unfortunately had to watch everything unfold with a sour frown.  
“What a dick,” you sneered, shaking your head.   
Your friends were sympathetic. While they knew Calum more than you, having seen him at the parties they attended without you, they weren’t friends with him, and knew he wasn’t always the most pleasant person to be around.   
“As fun as he is, he’s never been the nicest guy,” Mallory sighed, patting you on the arm comfortingly. “Hey, let’s get your mind off of him. Let’s dance!”  
You were positive you would need at least two more drinks in you in order to be able to dance, but you followed your friends anyway, still thinking about the bitter encounter and the nerve of Calum to act like that. He acted like a child, purposely trying to push your buttons to get you worked up. You scolded yourself for letting his ridiculous rudeness get to you, wishing you had just brushed it off like it was nothing, but another part of you wished you had given him a piece of your mind. You would have preferred to leave at that point and drown in Netflix, but you remembered your promise to try to have fun, and decided to give it a little longer.   
You halfheartedly swung your hips to the beat of the music, far too annoyed and far too sober to let yourself go. You continued with your pathetic excuse for dancing until Mallory grabbed your hands, forcing you to dance with her. A smile spread across your face for the first time that night, and you got a little more into the music as Carmen worked her way into the circle as well.   
The thought of the rude English major left your mind momentarily, giggling as you danced with your friends. They were the only ones who could make you have fun even when you were in the worst mood.   
You, Mallory and Carmen danced through a few more songs, laughing and singing along until you decided to take a break.   
“I’ll go grab drinks. You guys want anything?” You asked, adjusting your top. Mallory declined, so you went to grab drinks for you and Carmen.   
You weaved your way through the crowd, trying to make it back to the kitchen, when you felt yourself collide with something and liquid seep into your shirt. You gasped and stumbled backward, cringing at the wetness of your clothes.   
Your eyes trailed up to see who was responsible for your soiled outfit, and your eyes narrowed when you saw who it was.   
Of course, it had to be Calum.   
“What the hell?” You exclaimed, a dirty look easily spreading across your face.   
“Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” He sneered, returning the dirty look right back to you. Your head reared back, staring up at him incredulously. You were paying attention. It must have been him.   
“You ran into me!”  
“Like hell I did!”  
“God, how drunk are you?”  
“Hardly. I’m not a lightweight, unlike some. How many have you had tonight, princess? One? Two? I think you’re struggling to walk straight already.”  
“I’m walking perfectly fine. I’m totally sober.”   
“Heading back for more though, I see.” He cocked his head towards the kitchen. “Gotta get yourself ready for your foursome with Romano.”  
You scoffed, shaking your head at him. No matter whose fault it was, the least he could do was apologize for getting his drink on you, maybe even offer to get you something to dry off with if he was feeling extra kind, but you obviously couldn’t expect that kind of decency from him. Nor could you expect him to drop the foursome joke.   
“Whatever,” you grumbled, turning to leave. You didn’t want to deal with any more of his bullshit, and you had a feeling that he didn’t want to see you either.   
Rather than continuing to the kitchen, you made your way back to where Mallory and Carmen waited for you, and their eyebrows furrowed when they saw your wet clothes and angered expression.   
“What happened?” Carmen asked, reaching for your arm.  
“Calum spilled his drink on me. Didn’t apologize or anything, tried to blame me for it.” The two girls sighed, both of them having been wishing for the night to go a lot better than this. “Can we leave, please?”  
Mallory nodded quickly, grabbing your hand. She wasn’t one to back down on a promise, especially when you were so distraught.  
“Let’s go.”  
The three of you made your way to the door, thankfully avoiding seeing Calum again, and started to head back to your dorm room.   
On the way back, you could practically feel the annoyance bubbling within you. You were sure you could have learned to like Calum even after hearing the things you did, but the way he spoke to you changed your mind. He couldn’t even show you the least bit of respect.   
Unbeknownst to you, Calum was having similar thoughts about you.   
He was leaning against the wall, alone, a very unusual move for him at a party. He was always talking to someone, initiating some kind of chaos, but here he was, doing nothing. All because the girl who had never been to an Alpha Sig party killed his party mood.   
“What’s up with you, Hood?” Calum heard a familiar voice ask. He looked up to find Charlie staggering towards him, and he shook his head.   
“That fucking girl, man,” he sighed, polishing off the drink in his hand. “You friends with her?”  
Charlie shook his head, and Calum scoffed bitterly.  
“Don’t see how anyone could be. She’s a pain in the ass.”  
“I can’t believe you two got off that badly. It’s like you hated each other before you even met,” said Charlie.   
“She got all mad at me for making a joke,” Calum grumbled, shoving a hand into his pocket. “Twice. And got pissed when my drink spilled on her even though she clearly ran into me.”  
Charlie stayed quiet for a moment. Frankly, he wasn’t on either of your sides. He thought Calum was being rude to you, but he also thought you could have handled the situation better. He only wished he hadn’t been the one to call Calum over and start the whole thing.   
“Just forget about it, man,” he finally answered, clapping Calum on the shoulder. “Now quit being a lame ass and come help me get beer pong set up.”  
Calum grinned at that, pushing himself off the wall and following Charlie to where he was inevitably going to beat everyone at the game. Again.  
You arrived back at your dorm, and the three of you made quick work of finding pajamas to change into so you could get out of your party clothes and watch Queer Eye. As you pulled on your sleep shorts, you couldn’t help the rant that had been brewing up within you since Calum made the foursome comment, slipping out of your mouth.  
“Can you guys believe he said any of that shit?” You huffed, reaching for your baggy t-shirt. “He literally had the nerve to look at us, just standing there, and suggest we were having a foursome with Charlie. Honestly, Charlie Romano of all people. And doesn’t understand why that’s rude to say. Then he has to be all like, ‘do you ever leave your dorm besides for class?’ And the way he looked me up and down before he said that! How disrespectful is that? He has no regard for the feelings of others, clearly. Or manners. Even if I did run into him, which I didn’t, mind you, he could at least apologize, because he still spilled on me no matter who ran into who. And calling me princess?”   
“It’d be cute if you were dating,” Carmen mumbled under her breath.  
“I mean, yeah, but we’re not.” You sat down on the edge of your bunk. “As if I’d ever date that fuck face anyway.”  
Mallory sat down next to you and wrapped her arms around your shoulders comfortingly.  
“I know he’s an ass, babe, but you can’t let him get you so down. He’s not worth it.”  
“Yeah, girl, just avoid him,” Carmen added, sitting on the other side of you.  
“But I have Intro to Shakespeare from him. I have to see him there.”  
“Doesn’t mean you have to talk to him,” Carmen suggested. “Don’t even look at him. Don’t give him the time of day.”  
You nodded, wrapping an arm around each of your friends and pulling them closer to you.  
“I love you guys,” you mumbled, a small grin on your face.  
“Love you too, Y/N.”  
With that, you grabbed your laptop and opened up Netflix, the three of you cuddling up for some much needed watching of Queer Eye.  
…   
Monday morning. Time for Intro to Shakespeare.  
Carmen and Mallory both had class earlier in the morning, so you had the dorm to yourself for the morning. You got yourself ready for the day and gathered your belongings before you made your way to class.   
As you walked, your mind wandered back to the certain English major that you’d be seeing, assuming he showed up. You hoped his intentions would be similar to yours; avoid entirely. If you could go the whole rest of the semester without saying another word to him, you wouldn’t complain. You could only hope and pray that that was possible.   
You breezed into the classroom and your eyes couldn’t help but travel to the corner where Calum usually sat. He wasn’t there, at least not yet. You couldn’t help the obnoxiously bitter thought of him possibly being too hungover to show up crossing your mind.   
Calum, Charlie and the girl whose name you still didn’t know eventually walked in together, all three pairs of eyes falling on you as they came in. It was clear that they had been talking about you, otherwise they wouldn’t have all looked at you at once, and you had a gut feeling that it was Calum who made you the topic of conversation. If that was true, you were positive he wasn’t saying anything good. He couldn’t be. A part of you wanted to know what they had been saying, but the more logical part of you knew that that would only make things worse for you.  
Calum’s eyes narrowed at you for a moment before he sped up and walked to his seat, leaving behind Charlie and the girl. You easily returned the glare, even though he had walked away too fast to see it. He seemed to be on the same page as you in terms of avoiding each other for now, but just seeing him pissed you off. Maybe it was childish of both of you to fall into disliking each other so quickly without really getting to know each other, but there was just something about him that made your blood boil.   
One thing you couldn’t deny no matter how awful his personality was, was his good looks. He was hot, and you scolded yourself for thinking so. It was frankly unfortunate that he had to act like such an asshole; it took his attractiveness down quite a few notches.   
Charlie and the girl took their seats behind you. You avoided looking at them as they walked by. Neither of them had been rude to you like Calum had, but you knew a conversation with them would inevitably contain Calum as a topic, and you didn’t want to think or talk about him at all. He put you in far too bad of a mood.  
You suddenly felt a tap on your shoulder and you sighed, knowing it was Charlie. Deciding to not ignore him, you turned around. The look on his face almost seemed apologetic, as if he was about to deliver you bad news.   
“Hey Y/N,” he mumbled, glancing at the girl for a moment before returning his gaze back to you. “Emmy and I just wanted to say sorry. For the party.”  
“Yeah,” the girl, who you now knew was named Emmy, piped in. “We feel partially responsible for making you go, and I heard about what happened with you and Cal.”  
There was something about how she said “I heard” rather than specifying who told her rubbed you the wrong way. Had it been Charlie? Or Calum himself? Or another partygoer that had witnessed the ordeal? You figured you could trust Charlie enough to tell her the truth about your initial introduction, if he even remembered it, considering how drunk he was. He hadn’t seen the spilled drink occurrence, but you would be shocked if Calum hadn’t told him about it. Likely very shortly after it happened. Likely a dramaticized version that portrayed you as the bad guy, too. You knew you were probably overreacting, but it appeared that when it came to Calum, something was always off with you.   
“I didn’t think you guys would butt heads like that so fast. I just feel bad, I guess. Alpha Sig parties are supposed to be fun and your night got spoiled,” Charlie continued. You sighed and shook your head.   
“Don’t worry about it, it’s not your fault,” you replied. Your eyes flickered to Calum for a brief moment. “It’s all on him.” Charlie shrugged.   
“I guess.”  
The urge to ask Charlie and Emmy if Calum had said anything about you to them came back. You knew you would likely end up just being offended, but you struggled to ignore the pure curiosity and need to know every detail.  
“Hey, guys, I was-”  
“Good morning, class!”  
You were interrupted by Mr. Nolan’s voice, and you huffed as you turned back around to face the front. You would just have to wait until after class to ask, unless you managed to convince yourself to not ask at all within the span of one Shakespeare class.   
“We’re going to get started on our first novel study of the semester. We’ll be reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Has anyone read that before?”  
Some hands around the room went up, and you figured most people who had read it were forced to read it in high school English class, while others were inevitably just fans of the classics.   
You watched Mr. Nolan’s eyes scan the room, getting an idea of who would have knowledge on the book and who wouldn’t, before proceeding on with the lesson.   
The professor seemed to blab on and on about the background of the book and why it’s one of his favorite Shakespeare works. You tuned in on the important details, but decided not to bother with the story of how Mr. Nolan fell in love with Shakespeare’s works when he read the book in high school.   
At the end of class, Mr. Nolan announced that there would be a discussion on the book the following week, and encouraged everyone to keep up with the reading in order to be prepared. With that, class ended, and you packed up your belongings.  
“Hey, Y/N,” you heard a voice behind you say, and you turned to see Charlie standing there with his backpack slung over one shoulder. “Were you about to ask us something before class started?”  
You bit your lip and slowly let it slip out from between your teeth, rethinking your want to know what he said. Frankly, neither decision seemed appealing. You didn’t want to know, but you felt like you needed to. Like it was important somehow.   
“No,” you sighed, deciding to spare yourself the hurt. “Nevermind. I’ll see you guys Wednesday.”  
…   
It was the day of the discussion, and you felt very prepared. You kept up with the reading and annotated closely, and you had plenty of pieces of evidence and arguments ready to share. Mr. Nolan had left the discussion pretty open for students to discuss whatever topics and questions they could come up with, and you had a few things in mind to bring up.  
You walked into class to find the desks had already been arranged into a circle for the discussion, and you took a seat that was placed fairly close to where you normally sat. You reached into your backpack for you book and your notes and placed them on your desk.  
More people filed into the room and took seats in the circle, conversations ranging from “I’m so fucked, I haven’t read a single page” to “I have more evidence than I know what to do with.”   
Charlie, Emmy and Calum eventually sauntered in, thankfully paying no mind to you as they took seats on the opposite side of the circle. The three of them were all laughing at something when Calum’s eyes landed on you, and suddenly nothing was funny anymore. The smile faded from his face and the scowl that he always seemed to wear around you made an appearance.   
His situation was similar to yours. The mere thought of you made him want to roll his eyes, and he planned on avoiding you just like you planned on avoiding him.   
“Good morning, everyone. We’re going to get right into the discussion today so we can use all of our time.”  
Mr. Nolan sat down at his desk and arranged a few things before looking back up at the class.   
“Whoever would like to start.”   
A girl immediately chimed in, going on about the claim she crafted and the evidence she had to support it. The discussion continued and you piped in when you could.   
“What do you think Shakespeare is trying to say about love?” Someone asked, a question for anyone to answer. Calum decided to take that one.   
“I think the book is a satire on love,” he said, glancing at his open notebook. “Even if all the characters end up with the person they’re supposed to love, the process of getting to that point is really difficult with so many mishaps, and it makes you think of all that is really worth it for love. It even requires a love potion to make them fall in love with each other, so you can’t really even say that it’s true love if it’s forced. So I think Shakespeare uses the whole bouncing around of love between the characters and the issues that arise when trying to get everyone in the right spot in the novel, which is a comedy, to criticize the notion of love and how difficult it is to achieve.”  
You may have planned on avoiding Calum in every way possible, but the overwhelming need to put your two cents in on his comment overpowered your promise to yourself.  
“I don’t see it that way.” Calum’s narrowed eyes landed on you, mouth falling open slightly as if he was shocked that you dared contradict him. “I get what you’re saying, but I see it more as a celebration of love rather than a criticism of it. It’s true that getting to the point of everyone being in love with the right person was difficult, but the fact that they ended up with the right person in the end is enough to call it a celebration. They ended up happy in the end, so I would say it’s worth it. There’s three marriages, and Oberon and Titania even reconcile. Love conquers all, really.”  
“No. That’s too positive of an outlook, considering it’s Shakespeare. I wouldn’t call spending a whole night trying to force people to love each other worth it. Plus, Demetrius was still under the spell of the love potion by the end of the book. Helena gets her true happy ending since they used to be engaged and she loved him the whole time, but Demetrius was supposed to marry Hermia. He does love Helena in theory, but it’s forced. It’s a spell. I would say Lysander and Hermia are really the only ones who get a happy ending,” Calum argued back. If you wanted a debate, you were going to get a debate. He wasn’t one to back down, and he fully intended on standing his ground.   
“The whole theme of the book is ‘the course of true love never did run smooth.’ That-”  
“Exactly,” Calum cut you off with a cold glare. A part of you wanted to yell at him for interrupting you, while another part wanted to just throw your book across the room at him. He was right back to exhibiting the same rudeness to you that he had at the party. You huffed and held your tongue, remembering Mr. Nolan was watching. “That quote literally says that love is disastrous. It’s clear that Shakespeare is criticizing love when he says it doesn’t run smooth.”  
“That is not what it means!” You snapped, voice a bit louder than you had intended it to be. “It simply means that the journey to get there is rough. It doesn’t say love is disastrous at all. You need to look at how it ended for them. And even if Demetrius was still under the spell, that doesn’t mean it’s not true love. It felt like true love to him.”  
The class all looked shocked yet intrigued, unsure if they should step in. Mr. Nolan listened carefully but still prepared to end it if need be. He had seen plenty of arguments break out in his time as a teacher, so he knew when to step in.   
“Love should come naturally. People should simply love who they’re meant to love and not have a potion messing with it. It’s not true love even if it feels like it to Demetrius. And his and Helena’s relationship ended, and he loved Hermia. She just couldn’t let him go. He didn’t want to be with her. Not to mention she told Hermia and Lysander’s secret to him.”  
Your blood was boiling and you felt like you could argue with him all day. You had to admit he was making some valid points, but you refused to admit defeat. You refused to step down against Calum Hood, of all people. You knew you would never hear the end of it if you let the argument go.   
“But Hermia didn’t love Demetrius. She loved Lysander, and Lysander loved her. Hermia and Demetrius were never meant to be. And we don’t know the details of Demetrius and Helena’s past relationship. You don’t know if they were actually meant to be, if they have true love between them.”   
“And what do you know about true love, princess?”   
Your mouth dropped open, eyes narrowing at him even further. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. To be rude to you was one thing, but to be rude to you in front of your entire class and teacher was another thing. Before, you had stuck to the term “dislike” when it came to how you felt about him, but now you were quickly slipping into using the term “hate.”  
You hated him.   
Before you could snap back with a snarky comment, Mr. Nolan spoke up.   
“Alright,” he announced, standing up from his desk. “That’s all the time we have for today, ladies and gentlemen. You’re free to go. I’ll see you all next week.”  
You glared at Calum for another moment before roughly shoving your things into your backpack. You were pissed. You were pissed that he was such an asshole and you were pissed that he had the nerve to speak to you like that in front of so many people.   
You hated him.   
And God, he hated you too.   
His eyes burned holes into the back of your head as you stormed out of the classroom. You drove him crazy to no end. The fact that you felt the need to start a debate with him even though it clearly wasn’t going to end well made him think you were trying to pick a fight, to push his buttons. And he didn’t have the time or energy for that.   
“Hey, Cal-“ Charlie began, only to have his friend cut him off.   
“Don’t start, Romano. I’m not in the mood,” Calum grumbled, pushing himself out of his seat and swinging his backpack over his shoulder. He didn’t wait for Charlie and Emmy like he normally would. He took off out of the building towards his car and drove right back to his apartment off campus, blasting the music loud enough to drown out his own thoughts.   
He hated you.   
…   
Mallory and Carmen got another earful about Calum as soon as you entered the dorm room after your argument in class. Being your best friends, they could sense you weren’t in a good mood the second you opened the door. And lately, the main thing putting you in bad moods was Calum.   
They started disliking him too based on the stories you told about him, and based on their own experiences with him. It was the same deal with Calum’s friends; he ranted to them about the annoying girl in his Shakespeare class, and they only egged him on by agreeing.   
Weeks had passed since the argument, and things had been pretty low key between the two of you. There were often cold glares and a good amount of snarky comments towards each other in class or in passing, but there hadn’t been a big ordeal like the party or the discussion. You wanted to keep it that way.   
It was now a Thursday evening, and you were sat in your dorm room with your roommates, each of you busy working on assignments. The only sounds filling the room were that of the clicking of keyboards and the soft piano music that Mallory had turned on for better concentration. Eventually, said girl decided to make conversation.   
“You guys know what tomorrow is, right?” Mallory asked, gently closing her laptop.  
“Absolutely,” Carmen replied with a smirk. The two girls looked over at you expectantly, and you returned their gazes with furrowed eyebrows.  
“No…” you trailed off, feeling lost. They always seemed to be the ones to keep you up to date on important happenings. Carmen scoffed at your lack of knowledge.   
“Come on, Alpha Sig is throwing another party!” She informed you, and you rolled your eyes.  
“Do you really think I’ll go to another Alpha Sig party after what happened at the last one? And after everything that’s happened since then? No way you’re convincing me to go this time.”  
Carmen and Mallory shared a look. They couldn’t expect you to want to go to the party if Calum was inevitably going to be there, but they didn’t want to let one enemy ruin your college party experience. So, they came up with a plan.  
“What if-”  
“No, Mal. I don’t want to go to any party that Calum is going to be at. I don’t want to see him any more than I’m forced to,” you cut her off, shaking your head as you continued to work on your assignment.   
“Please just hear us out, Y/N,” Carmen sighed, climbing down for her bunk above you. “We have a gameplan for you to still have fun at this party with us even though Calum is going to be there.”  
It was your turn to sigh, shutting your laptop as your eyes flickered between your friends.  
“Fine. What’s the plan?”  
“We’re going to help you avoid him. We’ll stick by you the whole time, and keep an eye out for him while we have fun. If we see him, we go to another room. That boy isn’t going to lay eyes on you, let alone talk to you,” Mallory explained from her bunk. She looked at you expectantly.  
“Doesn’t really seem like much of a detailed plan,” you mumbled, resting your chin on your hand. You really did appreciate their efforts to get you to have fun, but you weren’t sure a promise to help you avoid Calum was enough to get you to go. Carmen huffed.  
“I mean, yeah, but it’s better than nothing, right? I’m sure you had fun at the last party when Calum wasn’t around. If we make sure he’s not around, then you’ll have fun. We promise,” she rambled.   
“And it’s the same promise as last time. If you’re miserable, we leave,” Mallory added.   
You sighed, looking at the two girls who were both giving you their best puppy dog eyes. You always struggled to say no to those, and you really hated to disappoint them.   
“Alright, alright, I’ll go. But if Calum so much as glares at me, we’re out of there.”  
…   
The next day, as you slipped on a dress, you began to question if going to a party that Calum Hood was going to be at was worth partying with your friends.   
You trusted them, and you knew they would follow through with their promise to help you avoid him and leave with you if it turned out to be another disaster. But Calum’s mere presence made your skin crawl, those stupid brown eyes that would kill you if looks could kill.   
You straightened out your dress and sighed. As much as you didn’t want to see him, you had to at least try for Carmen and Mallory.   
“You guys ready? The party started a little while ago,” Mallory called out, setting down her tube of lipstick and standing up. You resisted the urge to say “as I’ll ever be” and nodded, standing up to head to the Alpha Sig house.  
Much like last time, the music was loud and there were people standing outside, already drunk. Not like you expected anything less. The three of you made your way to the door and walked in, and you had to do a double take when you saw the crowd.   
The kick off party at the beginning of the year was supposed to be the best, but this seemed to be much more crowded than that had been. You had never heard anything about this party until Carmen and Mallory brought it up. Why was it so crowded? You sighed, glancing over at your friends.  
“Stay together, let’s go get drinks,” Carmen called over the music, and you all started to weave your way through the crowd to find the kitchen.  
You tried to keep up with them, you really did, but drunk frat boys stumbling through cut you off from them. You cursed under your breath, frantically searching for them but it was to no avail. It was far too crowded to just catch up. You pulled out your phone to text them, only to find you had no service.   
“Fuck,” you grumbled, looking up again to see if you could see them. Nowhere in sight.   
Calling out to them was pointless; it was too loud for them to hear and you would only make yourself look like an idiot. You huffed, continuing to walk through the crowd towards the kitchen, hoping that they were still heading in that direction.  
You froze as soon as you walked into the kitchen.  
It wasn’t Carmen and Mallory in there.  
It was Calum, making himself a drink.  
Just your luck.  
Calum saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up, rolling his eyes upon seeing you.   
“Can’t believe you came,” he commented blandly as he returned his gaze to his drink. “Didn’t think you were capable of leaving your dorm this much.” A smirk spread across his face as he finished making the drink and looked back to you. “Or perhaps you’ve come to apologize for calling me an asshole and running into me at the kickoff party. Or to admit that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a satire on love.”  
You wanted to walk out and ignore him, as much as his comments annoyed you, but you stood your ground. You didn’t want to appear weak in front of him. You scoffed and walked past him to get your own drink. There was a certain tension in the room, one that you felt when you argued in class before. That was always the vibe when you were in the same room; tense.  
“Well, I have nothing to apologize for, considering you are an asshole and you’re the one who ran into me. Nor is the book a satire on love. I came to have fun,” you replied coolly, quickly fixing a drink for yourself before looking at Calum with a shrug. “So when you’re ready to apologize, or admit that the book is a celebration of love, come find me. Otherwise, stay away from me.”  
With that, you brushed past him and walked out of the kitchen, feeling his eyes like daggers on your back. You could practically feel the tension lift as you got a distance away from him. You weren’t entirely sure what the tension was, but it made you want to scream.  
You let out a deep breath as you reached for your phone again. Still no service.   
You weren’t going to leave the party just because you lost your friends. You refused to do so. If you couldn’t find Carmen and Mallory, there had to be other people there that you knew. Maybe even Charlie would be cool if you hung around by him, as long as Calum wasn’t with him.   
You wandered around the party for a bit, slowly nursing your drink as your eyes scanned the crowd for anyone you knew. Just as you spotted your friend from your freshman year math class, you heard a sickeningly familiar voice call your name.   
You weren’t sure why he continued to talk to you. You had avoided each other in past weeks, but now he continued to speak to you. It seemed like he wanted to rile you up, to push your buttons and make you angry by poking fun at you.  
Two could play at that game.  
“Come to apologize? Or admit defeat?” You sassed as you turned to face the smirking boy, crossing your arms over your chest. A smirk spread across your own face as he rolled his eyes at your reply.   
“Came to see if you wanted to play beer pong,” he quipped, then tilted his head to the side. “You do know what that is, don’t you?”  
It was your turn to roll your eyes. You stared at him, his eyes boring into yours. You wanted to appear bigger, but those dark eyes of his staring you down made you feel weak. You wanted nothing more than to make a comeback, but not a single word came out of your mouth. It was such a simple little jab, yet all of the sudden you were at a loss for words. Just seconds before you felt like you had the upper hand, but one look into those cold eyes had you reeling. The air was thick with tension that gave you that strange feeling again as he waited for you to respond, and he chuckled darkly when he realized you had nothing.   
“Didn’t think so,” was all he muttered, turning on his heel and walking off.   
You huffed, fighting the part of you that wanted to follow him and say something, anything, just to get back at him. But you had nothing to say.   
You hated it.  
You hated him.   
There was still no sign of Carmen and Mallory as the night went on, just occasional traces of your other friends. The only person you continuously saw was the one person you didn’t want to see. Calum.   
You couldn’t pass by each other without one of you making a jab at the other. Him commenting on how you were alone, you commenting on how many drinks he had consumed. There were times where you were at a loss for words again, but there were also times where you had him tongue tied. Times where you could smirk proudly and all he could do was glare at you, having nothing to say. It was like a battle to outdo each other.   
No matter who was on top, you could feel the tension building up between you. Where you couldn’t breathe and you felt like making petty insults wasn’t enough.   
Until it burst.  
You ran into him for what felt like the millionth time that night, and you had both had just about enough of seeing each other, and neither of you were sure you could take one more obnoxious comment.  
“I’m starting to think you’re following me around,” you sneered, fed up. His eyebrows were drawn, eyes narrowed in a menacing squint.   
“Really? I was just about to say the same thing to you, princess.”  
Princess. That fucking nickname that drove you up the wall. He knew it got under your skin and he used it to his advantage. You took a small step closer to him, face contorted.   
“Don’t call me princess,” you hissed, feeling your entire body still with tension.  
“What are you gonna do about it?” He spat bitterly in return. He paused a moment before spewing out the next word like acid. “Princess.”  
Your mouth twitched. He drove you crazy and you couldn’t even pinpoint how. He made you feel like you were suffocating and you could feel your muscles burn with the tension that hung thick between you two.   
He made you so angry yet so speechless.   
“You are an asshole,” you snapped, yet your voice was soft. “A fucking asshole.”  
He stared at you. You stared at him. You waited for him to bite back with a snide comment but it never came. Instead he surprised you, he surprised you with something that you had never thought about happening.  
He grabbed your face and kissed you.  
The moment his lips touched yours you felt the fire within you get hotter. It felt as if there was a cup being filled since the moment you met and now it finally spilled over the top.   
That first kiss was short yet intoxicating, and you simultaneously pulled away. Both of you were breathless as if you had been at it for hours, chests heaving as your eyes met once again.  
You didn’t know what you were feeling. You didn’t know how you were supposed to feel. Calum Hood of all people just kissed you, and you felt a need grow within you that you hadn’t felt before.   
His large hands were still holding your face as both of you tried to think of something to say. You were speechless again, but not in the same way you had been before. Instead of being speechless in anger, you were speechless in pure shock.   
“What the hell was that?” Was what finally came out of your mouth. Your voice was firm, and your chest continued to heave. He took a deep breath before answering.  
“The tension is killing me,” he sighed, shaking his head a bit. You said nothing. You felt the same way and he knew it.   
“Do you want this?” Came Calum’s straightforward response to your silence. His eyes were locked on yours, an even darker shade of brown than normal. There was an energy crackling around him that matched yours, desperate and ready to blow.   
You knew what he was asking about. The tension that always surrounded you, you knew what is was now, and you couldn’t take another second of it.   
Instead of responding verbally, you grabbed the back of his head and smashed his lips back on yours. His lips never left yours as he grabbed your waist and dragged you towards the empty bathroom. He had you pressed up against the door as soon as it was shut, lips moving hungrily against each other.   
His knee found its way between your legs as you carded your fingers into his curls. The sounds of your lips smacking together mixed with heavy breathing filled the small space, and you could feel another tension growing that could only be broken by one thing.   
You needed him.  
You started to buck your hips forward slightly to create some friction, and Calum chuckled against your lips.  
“Needy, huh?”  
Despite the tension between you, you still hated each other, and that came with the snarky comments that you had been saying before.   
If anything, it made you want him more.   
“Shut up and fuck me,” you mumbled against his lips, sighing in satisfaction when you felt his hands lift up your dress to bunch at your waist. His lips moved from yours to your neck, making your mouth fall open in pleasure.   
“As you wish, princess.”  
You didn’t even care to tell him off for the nickname or his patronizing tone. Not when you needed him this bad.   
Calum’s hands took purchase on your hips and lead you over to the sink, hoisting you up to sit on the edge. His lips continued to work on your neck as your fingers reached for his jeans, a whimper escaping your lips as he nipped at your skin. As your fingertips gently trailed over his length, you could feel he was already getting hard, and the sensation elicited a groan from his plump lips against your skin.   
The sound was like music to your ears, and you didn’t want to wait anymore. You worked the button and zipper of his jeans, pulling them and his boxers down just past his ass. He groaned again at the release, quickly reaching down into his pocket for a condom and slipping it on before moving his hand from your waist to barely ghost over your clothed yet soaked center with his fingers. You gasped, your own hands finding his shoulders.   
“You ready for me?” He mused, pushing your panties to the side. He pulled away from your neck, looking at you with lustful eyes. You paused; not in hesitation, because there was no doubt in your mind that you wanted him. You simply had another thought.  
“Did you lock the door?”  
He groaned, rolling his eyes.   
“God, you’re annoying,” he huffed, squeezing your hips. “Are you ready or not?”  
You nodded quickly, unsure that you could wait another second.  
With that, he slowly pushed himself into you, both of you moaning out at the feeling. You had never thought about having sex with Calum, let alone in the bathroom at a frat party, yet somehow you felt like you had been waiting for this for a long time. Like your mind had been clouded and now you were finally being freed, and it felt so, so good.  
Calum started off with a slow pace, letting you get accustomed to him. You appreciated the gesture, but you didn’t need it. You needed him to fuck you good.  
“Come on, faster,” you rushed, dropping your head into the crook of his neck. You would have been a little more polite had it been anyone else, but you and Calum weren’t ones for kindness around each other.   
He grumbled something incoherent under his breath but obliged to your commands, picking up the speed of his hips. You moaned out, relishing in the feeling.   
Neither of you were going to last long, but it didn’t matter. You were chasing release, not prolonging the feeling, no matter how good it was.   
His hips continued to snap into yours roughly, the sinful sounds of skin on skin and obscene moans filling your ears. His hand came down to rub your clit, and your hips bucked forward at the feeling.   
“I-I’m gonna cum,” you stuttered out, nails digging into his shoulders. You were overwhelmed with pleasure, relying on him to keep yourself upright. His hips went faster at your words and the perfectly painful feeling of your nails in his shoulders. You were both desperate for release, and he was making quick to get you there.  
“Me too,” he growled, speeding up his actions on your clit. You clung onto him tighter, his name tumbling from your lips like a prayer. It wasn’t long before your orgasm washed over you, clenching around him as you gasped for air. Calum was close behind, chasing his own release desperately.  
“I hate you,” he groaned as he spilled his load into the condom. “God, I fucking hate you.”  
He slowed down the movements of his hips as he rode out your orgasms, coming down from your highs.   
After you were both able to catch your breath, he slowly pulled out of you and slipped the condom off, tying it off and tossing it into the trash.   
You weren’t sure what to do. You just fucked a guy you hated in a bathroom at a party. No one ever taught you what was supposed to come after that. Leave without a word and pretend like it never happened? Talk to each other? Nothing sounded appealing to you. A part of you just wished you could disappear back into the comfort of your dorm and think about what the hell you just did.   
You felt like you should regret it, but you didn’t. Not one bit.  
You slowly hopped down from the sink and adjusted your clothes back into place. You looked over at Calum, who was just finishing zipping up his pants. He glanced at you only for a moment before looking down, running his hand through his curls you that had messed up with your own fingers. He clearly was at a loss for what to do as well.  
“Well, uh...I’ll see you Monday,” he mumbled after a moment, giving you a brief head nod before heading towards the door. As his hand reached for the doorknob, he glanced back at you, as if checking if you were going to follow him.  
You didn’t move from your spot in the middle of the bathroom.   
He sighed, pulling open the door and walking back into the party. He shut the door behind him, leaving you with your thoughts.  
You took a deep breath, stepping towards the mirror to check your appearance. Your lips were a bit swollen from making out, but nothing anyone would notice. You hoped, at least.   
You really did just fuck him.  
What did that mean for the two of you? You surely didn’t suddenly like him now that you had fucked him, and you were sure he felt the same. But you also didn’t like the idea of having sex and never speaking about it again.  
He made your head spin.  
You waited another minute before exiting the bathroom, eyes bouncing around the crowd. You wanted to leave, leave and think, but you needed to find your friends first.   
“Y/N!”  
It was Mallory. Thank God.  
“Where the hell have you been? We’ve been looking for you all night!” She exclaimed, looking you up and down. They both looked concerned and confused.   
“I’ve been around,” you sighed, cocking your head towards the door. “Can we get out of here?”  
“Yeah, yeah, totally,” Carmen mumbled, eyebrows furrowing. She searched your face, trying to read your expression. “You okay?”  
“I’ll tell you on the way.”  
…   
Carmen and Mallory hardly knew what to say to you when you told them what you did.  
It was understandable that they were shocked. You fucked the guy that you constantly complained about, the guy that you claimed you hated more than anyone else on the earth. They couldn’t understand your reasoning. Not that you had any sound reasoning for them to understand.   
It just felt right. It felt like it was bound to happen.  
It was now Monday morning. Intro to Shakespeare. And that meant Calum.  
You considered ditching so you wouldn’t have to see him. Missing one day wouldn’t kill your grade, right? But you couldn’t ditch everyday, you would have to show up at some point, and that meant you had to see Calum at some point. He was unavoidable.   
You groaned and dragged yourself out of bed to get ready. You couldn’t help the sense of dread that filled you as you got dressed.   
You didn’t regret it, but you didn’t want to see him.   
When you got to class, you kept your head down as the rest of the students filed in. You pretended to look at your phone, scrolling through Instagram without actually looking at any of the posts in your feed.   
Calum looked straight ahead as he walked into the room. He knew you would be sitting in your spot, and he was feeling similarly to you. He didn’t regret it, but he was confused. He still felt hate for you when he thought about you, but did sex have to change anything?   
You were thankful when class started. You could focus in on the lesson and not the events of Friday night, or the boy sitting in the corner.   
“We’re going to focus a bit on Shakespearean history and certain aspects about the time period, himself, and his life and career. before we move onto our next book,” Mr. Nolan explained. “This will involve a project. You’ll each be assigned a partner, and each partnership will receive a specific topic to research. It can be any medium you feel is best fit for your topic. I will assign you your partners and topics towards the end of class, and you’ll have a few minutes to meet up and talk then.”   
You sighed. Assigned partners were never good. You could only hope you got someone who actually did work.   
Mr. Nolan then proceeded to go over the possible topics, giving a brief background on each one. The lesson went by fast, and before you knew it, he was reading off the partnerships.   
“Y/N Y/L/N and Calum Hood, you will be focusing on Shakespeare’s sonnets. You may choose any specific aspect of the sonnets you would like.”  
Your heart stopped.  
When Mr. Nolan said he would be assigning partners, the thought of being paired up with Calum hadn’t even crossed your mind.   
You could feel his eyes on you, but you didn’t dare look back at him. You were sure he was glaring at you, like he usually was, and you didn’t want to see it.  
You didn’t hear any of the rest of the partnerships. All your brain could focus on was the fact that you had to do a project with Calum, and that meant you had to meet up with him outside of class and talk to him and be somewhat close to him.   
Sex aside, the thought of that made you want to pull your hair out.   
“Go ahead and find your partner. I recommend exchanging phone numbers and working out a time and place to get started, while you’re together. Keep in mind you will not be getting time in class to work on this,” Mr. Nolan announced. With that, people got up and found their partners, but you didn’t move. You stayed right in your seat, staring at a single spot on your desk that suddenly seemed very interesting.   
What the hell were you going to do?   
You could talk to Mr. Nolan and ask him to give you a new partner. Maybe he would understand if you explained that you and Calum weren’t on good terms. But then again, he saw your argument during the discussion. Had he assigned you to be together on purpose?  
Your thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a backpack being roughly dropped on the floor and a body landing in the empty desk next to you.  
You didn’t have to look to know who it was.   
“Look, I know this sucks and I know things are weird but we have to get over our differences for now and do this project and we have to do it well. I need a good grade.”   
You forced yourself to look up at him. His face was firm, yet not hateful. He wasn’t glaring at you like he normally did, nor was there lust clouding his eyes like on Friday night. He simply looked serious, eyebrows just barely drawn together.   
“I know. But we have to agree to disagree on things and compromise. If we fight and try to push each other's buttons the whole time, nothing is ever going to get done,” you replied with a blank tone of voice. You tried to keep your expression neutral, and you could only hope that you were succeeding.   
“Remember that goes both ways, princess.”  
You scoffed, leaning back slightly in your chair. You had just said you shouldn’t push each other’s buttons, yet here he was doing just that.   
You could feel that tension you felt before start to slowly arise again, and you forced yourself to ignore it.  
Sex didn’t make you not hate each other.  
“I know,” you sighed, deciding not to call him out and make a scene in front of the whole class. Again. “And stop with the nickname, it’s annoying.”  
Calum rolled his eyes, reaching into the pocket of his joggers and pulling out his phone. He opened it and tapped the screen a few times before holding it out to you.  
“Whatever. Just put your number in.”  
You grabbed the device from him and punched in your phone number, then handing it back to him. He shoved it back into his pocket before looking at you.   
“Want to meet at the twenty-four hour library Thursday night? We can figure out what aspect of sonnets we want to do.”   
“Yeah, sure. Eight?”  
“Eight sounds good.”  
And then, class ended.  
…   
You thought Carmen and Mallory were going to have a heart attack when you told them you and Calum were partnered on a project and you were now going to meet him at the library to work on it.   
“Do you want one of us to come with you? Sit at a table nearby and you know...keep watch,” Mallory suggested, shrugging her shoulders. You sighed and shook your head, slinging your backpack over your shoulders.   
“No, you don’t have to do that. Even if we end up arguing, I can handle myself.”   
“But you fucked-”  
“Don’t worry about that,” you cut off Carmen. “I’m going to try to bring it up to him if I get the chance. See what he says.”  
The two girls both sighed, glancing at each other for a moment before looking back at you, heading towards the door.  
“Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?”  
“I won’t, I promise. I’ll see you guys later.”  
“Text when you’re on your way back!”  
With that, you shut the door behind you and headed towards the library.   
Your mind raced on the way there. You wanted to be optimistic about working with him, but you were finding it hard. You hated him and you had hate sex with him. It made things a little complicated, at least in your mind.   
Just as you stepped into the highly air conditioned, empty library, you felt your phone vibrate in your pocket. You pulled it out to see a text from Calum.   
Calum: I’m here. Back right corner  
You turned in that direction to find Calum sitting at a table far into the corner, looking down at his phone. Of course, he chose the most secluded possible space.   
He looked up at the sound of you setting your backpack down on one of the chairs. He sighed and stuck his phone in his pocket.   
“So did you have any ideas on what we could research?” He asked quickly.  
Not even a greeting. Jumped right into the work. You would have made a comment about him being unfriendly, but you remembered what you told him on Monday. No fighting. No pushing each other’s buttons. You kept it to yourself.   
“I don’t know. I have a few ideas,” you sighed as you sat in the chair next to your backpack. “He wrote so many it’s hard to just pick one thing to focus on and do a whole project about.”  
“Well, what are the ideas?”  
His tone was snarky and you didn’t appreciate it. You told yourself you were going to be patient and start a fight, but him being him, he was quick to get on your nerves. You reminded yourself again of your promise to yourself, and ignored it.  
“We could research the theme of love, pretty much all of them have it. Or either the Fair Youth or the Dark Lady.”  
Calum hummed, glancing over something that had been scribbled in his notebook.   
“The Fair Youth or Dark Lady are good ideas. All mine are kind of obscure, they would be hard to research. Want to combine them, do a bit of both?”  
“Yeah, sure.”  
That’s one thing you agreed on. Off to a good start, but you weren’t sure how long that would last.   
“What do you know about them?”  
You both rattled off the basic facts that you had learned before, the theories surrounding them and the supposed relationship between them and the speaker. You both pretty much knew all the same information, so it left a lot to research.   
You managed to figure out what else you needed to learn and assign each person what they should do some preliminary research on. You were still yet to argue, and you wanted to keep it that way.   
Then, it fell silent as you both typed away on your computers, learning all about the mysterious people in the speaker’s life. You took careful notes on all the information you found and made sure to keep track of the sources you used.   
Unfortunately, no fighting didn’t last very long.   
You weren’t entirely sure how it started. First he asked what you had found, and you told him. Before you knew it, you were yelling, disrupting the quiet of the library late at night. You quickly forgot what you were fighting about, but the yelling never stopped.   
“Fuck you!” You hollered, pointing a stern finger at him. “Fuck you, Calum!”  
The tension was back in full force, and you could feel your body practically tremble with it.   
The last time you felt it, you had sex, and frankly, it felt relieving.   
Maybe you just needed it again.   
In the midst of Calum laying down a scathing insult to your intelligence, you suddenly rose from your seat and made his lap your seat. You swung a leg on each side of his hips to straddle him and grabbed his face to kiss him, much like he had done to you at the party. You weren’t thinking but it didn’t feel like you had to. It was always a build up every time you were together, and it was only a matter of time before one of you cracked. Last time it was him, now it was you.   
He didn’t question it. He didn’t pull away. His hands flew to your ass and ground you down on him, satisfied groans leaving both of your lips, lost in each others mouths.   
All the feelings from the party were coming back to you. Hot, desperate. Knowing it was wrong but feeling so right.   
“You okay with this?” Calum asked breathlessly as his fingers frantically worked the button of your jeans. “Doing it here?”  
The thought of doing it in public turned you on more than you cared to admit, the thrill of getting caught, but you didn’t say that to him. You only nodded, wishing he would just get your pants off and fuck you already.  
“Please,” you whispered, and that was all he needed to hear. He pushed your supplies away and had you bent over the table in seconds, giving you exactly what you both wanted.   
…   
You didn’t expect him to offer to walk you home, but you couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed when he didn’t. It would have been the gentlemanly thing to do.  
After you finished your “shenanigans,” you silently fixed your clothing and awkwardly agreed that that was enough work for the night, leaving the library without another word.   
As soon as you arrived back to your dorm, Carmen and Mallory were waiting for you, just as you suspected. They didn’t need to ask how it went when they saw your swollen lips and hair messed up from sex.  
“Really? You fucked him again?” Carmen exclaimed, throwing her hands up for emphasis.   
“Hello to you, too,” you grumbled, dropping your backpack on the floor.   
“Y/N,” Mallory sighed, standing up from her bed. “I thought you were going to talk to him about the sex thing? Not do it again?”  
It was your turn to sigh, shrugging your shoulders. They were right. It was stupid of you to fuck a guy you hated and not talk about it. But it didn’t feel like you were doing the wrong. When the tension was so palpable, you couldn’t help it.  
“I know, I know. I was going to, really, but then we started arguing again and it just...happened,” you explained, kicking your shoes off.   
Carmen and Mallory shared a look. Their time around you and Calum together was limited, but based on what you had told them, they could see what was happening.  
“Are you sure you hate each other?” Mallory asked cautiously. You scoffed at that; you figured it was hate that drove the sex.  
“Uh, have you met him? How couldn’t I hate him?” You responded. You did hate him, you really did. Maybe fucking him made being around him tolerable.   
Maybe fucking him not only relived the tension between you, it also could relieve a little stress in your own lives.   
“Just talk to him next time, okay? Or else I’ll do it for you.”  
You laughed softly at Carmen’s comment.   
“Yeah, I will, I promise.”   
You got yourself ready for bed and laid down, mentally planning out how to talk to Calum about the situation.  
…  
Monday came around, and Carmen and Mallory were sure to remind you a million times that you had to talk to Calum. You worked out just what you were going to say to him. You could only hope that it would come out the way you wanted it to.   
You waited until after class to say anything. You purposely packed up slowly, waiting for him to walk by your desk to leave, and then you called his name.   
His head turned sharply to you, eyebrows furrowing. He was still getting used to actually talking to you when you weren’t just making jabs at each other. He weaved his way to your desk, standing next to it.   
“Yeah?” He inquired, tone almost hesitant.   
“We need to talk,” you sighed. “About...what we do.”  
He sighed too. He had been meaning to talk to you about it as well, but he wasn’t sure how to bring it up. He knew what he wanted, but he couldn’t tell if you would want the same thing.   
He cocked his head towards the door.  
“Let’s talk outside.”  
You grabbed your backpack and followed him outside of the classroom, getting a distance away from Mr. Nolan’s classroom before leaning against a wall to talk.   
“We can’t just keep doing this. We fight and then fuck. We either…” you trailed off, words failing you. There was no subtle or not awkward way to put it. “I don’t want to have sex just when we’re fighting.”  
“I know, I agree,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. “Do you want to stop, though?”  
You looked away for a moment. Should you stop? Maybe. Did you want to? Not really. As long as you didn’t continue with only fucking in the middle of a fight.   
“I mean, we don’t have to. I just don’t want it to be because we hate each other, you know? It’s not right.”   
“What are you suggesting, then?” He asked lowly, cocking an eyebrow at you. You huffed, trying desperately to find the words to say without sounding awkward. Your whole plan had completely left your mind, and now you were scrambling.   
“I’m suggesting it needs to be more regular. Not just when we’re fighting. We could be like friends with benefits. Except we’re not really friends, I guess. But, you know, stress reliever type of thing.”  
Calum stared at you for a moment, thinking about your proposal. He would never say it, but he quite enjoyed the couple times you had been together. Maybe it had been driven by hatred, but it was good. You were good. But he agreed with you that only having sex because you hated each other wasn’t going to work.   
“So you’re saying we can hit each other up to have sex when we’re stressed? And we don’t have to be friends?” He asked to clarify. You nodded slowly.   
“That works,” he answered, also nodding in confirmation. You let out a breath you didn’t realize you had been holding. It was a pretty fair arrangement, you thought.   
“So I’m that good, you can’t get enough, huh?” He teased, a cocky smirk spreading across his face. This arrangement didn’t mean he still couldn't push your buttons. You weren’t friends, like you said. You scoffed, pushing off the wall.  
“Shut up, Calum.”  
With that, you walked off, and Calum watched you with that smirk ever present on his face.   
He wouldn’t admit that he liked having sex with you, but he also wouldn’t admit that you were cute when you were annoyed.  
…  
As time went on, you frequently texted each other when you were in need of a release. You went to his apartment most times so you could be alone, but he had come to your dorm a few times too when Carmen and Mallory were out and you were sure neither of them would be back for a while. You also managed to finish your project for class, albeit through lots of bickering, and got a good grade on it.   
It was good. It was working. You were able to have good sex with no strings attached, and you were both okay with it. You could be stressed over a history assignment and he would eat you like you were his last meal. He could be stressed over the essays he had to write for his various English classes, and he knew he could count on you to give him a nice blowjob.  
It was good until things started to change.   
It started with Calum. You texted him asking if you could come over, and although that wasn’t an abnormal occurrence, he didn’t feel the same way he normally. Normally he would bite his lip in desire or something along those lines, but that isn’t what happened.  
He smiled. A real smile.   
Of course, he didn’t say a thing about it to you when you arrived. He simply took you to his bedroom, rid you of your clothes and laid down with his head between your legs like he always did. But after you went home, he couldn’t stop thinking about the little spark of joy he felt when you texted him. That small pang of happiness that struck him when he got to see you again. It was strange, so strange to him, because he never felt like that around you. He was either ignoring you completely, mad at you, or clouded with lust for you.   
He was so confused. He had spent all semester hating you, but now he was actually happy to see you, and not about the sex, though he couldn’t exactly complain about that.   
He didn’t know what the hell was going on with himself.  
Unbeknownst to him, you were starting to have similar thoughts with yourself.  
You always responded a little too fast whenever he texted you, and always got ready to meet him a little too quickly. It was as if you were in a rush, and not because you were that excited for the sex. You kind of just wanted to see him. Which was odd, because not too long ago you would have done just about anything to avoid seeing him.   
You shared your confusion with Carmen and Mallory as it got worse and things kept changing, and Mallory asked you a similar question to the one she had asked you after you got back from the library.  
“Are you sure you hate him?”  
“I mean, yeah, I thought so,” you sighed, lifting your hand up and letting it drop back down onto the bed. “It’s not like I’m in love with him or anything, but if I truly hated him I wouldn’t get so eager to see him, right?”  
“Right,” Carmen agreed. “So you don’t hate him.”  
“But...But like, I do,” you mumbled, eyebrows pinched together. The two girls sighed, and you missed the looks they gave each other.  
“No, honey, I don’t think so,” Carmen continued. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but I think you might be falling for him.”  
“What?” You scoffed, almost laughing at that ridiculous statement. “Absolutely not.”  
“Just give it time, see if how you feel keeps changing. As much as you’ve hated him before, things do change. You never know what could end up happening.”  
…  
“Fuck, Calum, right there, right there.”  
He hummed against your core, gently working his tongue on your clit. This wasn’t normal for him. Eating you out was common, but you were both used to it being rough and harsh. This was the total opposite. He was being slow and soft, not roughly pinning your hips to the bed like he usually would. He was feeling soft with you.  
“Feel good?” He mumbled, briefly removing his mouth from you before immediately attaching it back on.   
“Yes, shit, feels so good.”  
You were too overwhelmed with pleasure to even notice the shift in sex. He was a king when it came to him using his mouth on you, so whether it was fast or slow, it always felt amazing.   
It wasn’t until you were on your way home that you realized what happened.   
Maybe you were overthinking it, but you couldn’t help but feel like it meant something. He was probably just tired and not in the mood to be rough, but what if that wasn’t the case? You hadn’t been able to tell if his feelings about you were also changing, but maybe this meant they were. Maybe he was focused on actually making you feel good rather than just relieving you and getting to your orgasm.   
You sighed and pushed the thought to the back of your mind. You didn’t want to get your hopes up.  
…  
“So you’re saying you actually want to go to the party?” Carmen asked, watching you apply mascara to your lashes.   
“Yep,” you replied, twisting the bottle closed. “Math is kicking my ass. I need to get drunk.”  
Mallory sighed, shrugging as she got off her bed.   
“That’s fair, I guess. But you know who’s probably going to be there, right?” She cautioned, cocking an eyebrow. You almost smiled.   
“I know. I don’t care about him tonight. I just want to let loose and have fun with you guys.”  
Your friends grinned at that.   
After you finished getting ready, you made your way to the party and you were quick to find the kitchen, the three of you getting drinks. That was one of many, for you, at least. You eventually reached the point of a quite a bit past tipsy, and you were having tons of fun.  
“I’m going to the bathroom,” you yelled over the music to your friends, who nodded and allowed you to stumble away. Your vision was a bit hazy and your mind was all over the place, but you got pretty close to the bathroom before you felt a hand on your shoulder.   
You whipped your head around, and you were met with a guy you had never seen before. Cute, yes, but a stranger, nonetheless.   
“Hey there,” he murmured, a smirk growing on his face. “You all alone?”  
“Well, my friends are here,” you slurred. “I just gotta pee.”  
The guy chuckled, placing a hand on your waist to pull you closer to him. Your face scrunched up at the action, but your drunken mind didn’t think of pushing his hand away.   
“Your friends wouldn’t mind if we get out of here, would we?” He cooed. “You look so pretty. Just want to take you home.”  
You hummed, sharply shaking your head.  
“No can do. I came here to get drunk, not fuck.”  
“Who said we were going to fuck?”   
His grip on your hip tightened, and you scoffed. Even when hammered, you knew what his intentions were.   
“Well, what are we going to do, then? Play Bingo?”  
He chuckled again, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear. He was being too handsy, and you didn’t like it one bit.  
“You’re funny, aren’t you?”  
You squirmed, trying to move away from his grasp but you were no match compared to him, especially under the influence.   
“Get away.”  
“Come on, sweet thing, just relax.”  
You figured this encounter was falling on deaf ears, but unbeknownst to you, it didn’t. Calum heard every word.  
He didn’t think much of it at first, but when he turned to see what was going on, his fists clenched at his sides. It was clear you were drunk, and it was also clear that this guy planned on using that to his advantage to get you to go home with him.   
He didn’t know why he cared so much, if he really hated you, but he found himself ditching his friend who was in the middle of telling a story and storming over to you. It was like he was acting on instinct, and he couldn’t stop himself as he grabbed your arm and pulled you away from the smirking guy. This need to protect you and stand up for you was overwhelming him, leaving him utterly confused but still following through with his actions. He pulled you into his side, wrapping an arm around your shoulders.  
“Fuck off, man,” Calum sneered, putting on his best intimidating glare.  
You whipped your head up to see who had pulled you away, eyebrows furrowing when you saw who it was. Calum was the last person you expected to come defend you, but you weren’t going to complain. Not when the guy was freaking you out and certainly not when you had been thinking that he didn’t hate you as much as before.  
“What’s the problem? Just trying to talk to this pretty girl right here.”  
“She clearly doesn’t want to talk to you,” Calum spat. “So fuck off.”   
When the guy finally walked away, Calum sighed and started walking too. His arm was still wrapped around your shoulders, making you come with him.  
“Where are we going?” You mumbled drunkenly. Your thoughts were muffled, and you could barely comprehend what was going on. All you knew was that Calum got rid of the creep for you.   
“To find your friends,” he grumbled, eyes searching the crowd. He soon found Carmen and Mallory, recognizing them from the first Alpha Sig party. He lead you up to them and gently pushed you towards them.   
They both looked at him in confusion, mouths slightly agape. Seeing Calum walk you up to them with his arm around you was the last thing they expected to see. They shared a quick look with each other before returning their gazes back to him.   
“Some guy was trying to take advantage of her. I got him away,” he told them, not making eye contact with either of them. “Keep an eye on her.”   
He huffed and briskly walked away, running a hand through his curls. He didn’t know what was going on. He finds himself smiling when you text him, then goes soft on you during sex, and now has an overwhelming urge to proctect you.  
He was supposed to hate you. This wasn’t supposed to happen.  
The thought made his heart race, but he was definitely falling for you.   
…  
The next morning, you woke to a killer headache and a text from Calum.  
You picked up your phone and read it with squinted eyes.  
Calum: Hey, I don’t know how much you remember from last night, but I just wanted to make sure you were ok.  
You didn’t know what to say. You were fine, yes, but was that all you had to say? You felt like there were a million things to say, to tell him, but you couldn’t. You wanted to demand to know what was happening, ask him about his feelings. But you couldn’t.  
You: I’m ok  
You waited a moment before typing out another text.  
You: Thank you for checking in, Calum  
You sighed and dropped your phone onto the mattress, running your hands down your face.   
Why did things have to get complicated?   
It was clear you weren’t the only one feeling something different between you. Calum never would have saved your drunk ass at a party and then texted you the next morning to check on you when you first met. If even if he liked you just as a friend, there was no way he despised you the way he did before.  
On your part, the gesture made your heart skip a beat now that you were sober. It was kind of him, and you appreciated that he cared.  
“Y/N?” A voice came from the bed across from you. Mallory was sitting up in her bed, looking over at you with furrowed eyebrows. “You good?”  
You sighed, staring at her for a moment before answering.  
“I think I like him, Mal.”  
…  
Calum finished into the condom with one last hard thrust, groaning lowly into the crook of our neck. You both laid there for a minute to catch your breath before Calum rolled off of you and got up to throw the condom away. You sighed as you sat up, swinging your legs over the side of the bed and making your way towards your clothes that were strewn on the floor.  
Neither of you had had the courage to say anything to each other about your feelings. It almost came out, multiple times, whether over text or in person, but neither of you said a word. It had been building up, but nothing ever happened.  
You slipped on your clothes and glanced over at Calum, who was just walking back towards his bed after putting on a pair of sweats.   
“See ya Monday,” you mumbled, slowly heading towards the door.  
“See ya.”  
You never stayed after your times together. It was like an unspoken rule to leave right afterwards. But that rule was created when you hated each other. You certainly didn’t hate him anymore, and you had a good feeling that he didn’t hate you either.   
Just as you reached for the doorknob, Calum’s voice stopped you.  
“Y/N?”  
You turned to look at him, eyebrows raised in expectancy. He looked conflicted, as if he had been debating on saying what he was about to say.  
“Why don’t you just stay here tonight, yeah? It’s late, and it’s raining.”  
You glanced towards the window, not having noticed the patter of rain until that moment.  
You hesitated for only a moment before you replied, trying to calm your racing heart.  
“O-Okay. Yeah. Thanks.” You paused, glancing around the room for a second as you thought. Would it be weird if you just got right into his bed? “I can sleep on the couch-”  
“Y/N, come on,” Calum sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed and patting the other side. “You can sleep here.”  
“Are you sure?” You mumbled, suddenly nervous. You had been in his bed countless times doing things far more intimate than sleeping, but this felt different. He invited you to spend the night at his place, breaking the “leave immediately after” rule.  
“Yes, I’m sure. We’ve had sex how many times and you’re afraid to get in my bed?” He teased, but it wasn’t meant to be rude or offend you. He was smiling, not cockily smirking. You couldn’t help but smile too, and you rolled your eyes playfully.  
“Shut up, Calum.”  
You walked back to the bed and crawled in on the opposite side of him. As soon as you both got settled, the lightheartedness in the room washed away, and you were right back to the awkwardness of before. It took a moment for either of you to say anything.   
“Goodnight,” Calum mumbled. You sighed.  
“Goodnight.”  
And then it was quiet again.  
You both laid there for a while, facing away from each other. You couldn’t bring yourself to close your eyes. You were right back to being nervous, right back to being awkward, and not to mention you were fucking freezing. You shivered, curling into the blankets.  
“You cold?”  
You could hear Calum turn his head to face you, but you didn’t move a muscle.  
“A little,” you admitted softly. “I’m fine, though.”  
Calum sighed, and you didn’t hear him move. You almost looked back at him, but then you heard him shift around some more and all of the sudden, his front was pressed up against your back and his arms were wrapped around your waist.   
You tensed, heart skipping a beat.   
You were cuddling.   
You mentioned you were a little cold, and now you were cuddling.   
A million thoughts swarmed through your mind, and they weren’t negative. You should have been questioning it, but you weren’t. It felt right. You bit back a smile as you relaxed in his arms and let yourself fall asleep.  
…  
The morning after you spent the night at his place, you left right after you woke up with a short goodbye, not wanting to overstay your welcome. The next time you went to his place, you began to get dressed and leave, not sure if it was a one time thing, but he invited you to stay again. After that, you just assumed you were welcome, and Calum never said otherwise.   
Then, one day, he asked you to stay for breakfast. You about died when he asked you and it took him what seemed like forever to work up the courage to do it, but you had a really nice time. It felt like the first time you ever had an actual conversation. You both smiled and laughed, feeling genuinely comfortable around each other.   
As you headed home after that, you knew you were in deep shit. You liked him a lot. He wasn’t the cocky asshole you thought he was. He was sweet, funny, and Charlie wasn’t lying when he said Calum was very smart. Not to mention those damn curls made you swoon.   
Calum was feeling the same way about you. As he started to succumb to his urges to spend more time with you, not just fuck and go, he realized just how great of a person you were. He noticed things about you that he had never noticed before, like the way your eyes lit up when you laughed and how pretty your smile was. These were all things he never noticed because he couldn’t look past the negative encounters he had with you. But now he saw the real you, and you saw the real him.  
Now it was only a matter of admitting it to each other, and that was the hard part.  
…  
You got a text from Calum on a Saturday morning.  
Calum: Want to get lunch today?  
A grin spread across your face. He was inviting you to actually hang out, not have sex. It was a first for the two of you.  
Sex had been happening a lot less often. It seemed as if it only happened every once in awhile just to keep the relationship that you had going, but now that your feelings for each other were changing, you didn’t want to fuck each other to realize your stress. You wanted more from each other. Instead, you settled for texting each other frequently, making up for time that you weren’t together in person. It started as a bit awkward and forced, asking questions about Intro to Shakespeare assignments and upcoming school events, until you got to really talking. The conversations were still fairly basic, but at least you were getting to know each other. You were moving on from your bitter past.  
You typed out a response.  
You: Definitely!  
You proceeded to make plans, and soon enough, you were on your way to the restaurant you and Calum had decided on.   
He was already there when you arrived, waiting for you at the table.   
“Hey,” he greeted with a grin as you took the seat across from him.  
“Hi,” you answered easily, smiling.   
“How are you?” He asked, setting down the menu he had been skimming.   
“I’m pretty good. You?”  
“Doing good.”  
“How’s your essay for Shakespeare coming along?” You asked, uttering thanks to the waiter that set glasses of water on the table for the two of you. Calum chuckled at your question.  
“I haven’t started it. Probably won’t until Tuesday.” The essay was due on Wednesday.  
Before, you would have thought he was irresponsible, lazy, and not at all ashamed to call him out for it, but now, you found it amusing. He wasn’t a procrastinator because he was lazy or too much of a party animal, he was just that kind of person that could crank out an essay in two hours and get a good grade on it. In your opinion, it was even a little bit charming.  
“Of course you haven’t started,” you teased playfully, not meaning it in a menacing way at all. Calum laughed, shrugging his shoulders mockingly.   
Eventually, the small talk grew to real conversation, getting into deeper topics, like your plans and dreams for after college and what you thought you wanted to do for a career when you were younger as opposed to what you were aiming for now. Calum talked about how he always loved music, ever since he was little. The soft smile he wore on his face when he talked about it was adorable, but you sensed a hint of melancholy around him.  
“So you don’t like music anymore?” You asked curiously, popping a french fry into your mouth. If he was passionate about music, why did he major in English?  
“I do. I love music, actually,” Calum sighed. “And I love English too. I guess I just figured I could get more places in life with an English degree rather than a music degree.”  
A small frown tugged at your lips. You always heard stories about people who give up what their passionate about because they don’t think it will get them anywhere, or that’s what their parents tell them.   
“Oh,” you mumbled with sympathy. “Don’t give up on music if you love it, though. Even if you don’t do it for a living, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it in your free time.”  
“Yeah, I’ve still got my bass lying around. Haven’t played in a while.”  
“You should pick it up again, then!” You encouraged. “Music makes you happy, yeah? Don’t give it up if it makes you happy.”  
Calum smiled, the small crinkles by his eyes making your heart flutter.   
“You’re right,” he mumbled softly, and that pretty smile hardly left his face for the rest of the lunch.  
When it was time to go, Calum took care of the check despite your protests to pay for your own food, and you were on your way out.   
“I can drive you back to campus, if you want,” Calum offered as you walked out of the restaurant, cocking his head towards his car in the parking lot. You had taken an Uber to the restaurant, and you hated to trouble him in taking you all the way back to your residence hall and then going all the way back to his apartment building. But you couldn’t deny that you wanted to spend just a few more minutes with him.  
“I mean, if it’s not too much of a bother for you. I can take an Uber-”  
“No, it’s no trouble at all. Come on,” he chimed, and you followed him to the sleek black vehicle. He came around to the passenger side and opened the door, gesturing for you to get in. You grinned at him and mumbled a thank you, climbing into the car before he shut the door after you and jogged around to the driver side.   
The drive back to campus was short, but it was filled with laughs and singing as Calum turned the radio on and the first song to play was Old Town Road. He glanced over at you as you danced in your seat, a look of fondness taking over his features. He almost grabbed your hand, hell, he almost pulled over so he could kiss you, but he held back. He wanted to wait for a better moment, a better place, to admit his feelings.   
Calum pulled up in front of your hall far too soon, and he threw the car into park.  
“Thanks for the ride. And lunch,” you expressed gratefully as you unbuckled your seatbelt.   
“Of course,” he mumbled, watching you with the same fond smile he had when you were dancing. “This was fun, I’m glad we hung out.”  
“Yeah, it was,” you murmured sheepishly. You waited for a moment as if you were expecting him to do something, although you weren’t sure what you expected him to do. You knew what you wanted him to do, of course, and he wanted to do the same thing, but he reminded himself to wait.  
“Here, let me walk you up,” he offered, turning off his car. Your heart was pounding as you got into the building and into the elevator. Neither of you said anything, and the air around you was tense, but not the same kind of tension that you had felt before. This tension wasn’t going to lead to sex.  
You walked down the hall to your dorm and stopped in front of your door.  
“This is me,” you mumbled. Calum nodded, remembering it from the few times he had been there. He then looked at you with a smile.  
“Alright, bring it in,” he exclaimed, opening his arms. You felt like your knees were going to give out underneath you as you hugged him, grinning madly into his chest.   
It felt better than you cared to admit.   
It ended all too soon, and Calum gave your arm a quick pat as he pulled away. You both smiled at each other, and it took a moment for either of you to say anything.  
“You know what, Y/N?” He mused, joy hinting his eyes. You tilted your head to the side, waiting for him to continue. “You’re not as awful as I thought you were.”  
You laughed at his comment, but your heart still fluttered at the lighthearted comment.  
You felt like you were starting over with him. Like you were putting the past behind you and meeting for the first time again. A fresh, new relationship with the real Calum and the real you.   
“Thanks, I guess,” you joked. “And you’re not the asshole I thought you were.”  
He grinned widely as he stared at you for another moment, and you searched his eyes. You couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something in them that wasn’t always there.   
Unbeknownst to you, it was the overwhelming urge to kiss you and admit his feelings to you right then and there. He almost gave in and said “fuck it” to his plan to wait for a better time, but he refrained.  
“I’ll see you Monday,” he finally said, and you almost sighed.  
“Yeah, see you then.”  
With that, he walked back out to his car and drove home, heart hammering in his chest.  
Both of you could only hope that that better time and place would come soon.  
…  
You and Calum started hanging out frequently, whether it be getting lunch at your new favorite place, studying or working on Shakespeare assignments at the library, walking around campus or simply chilling at his apartment or your dorm. You were falling for each other more and more, and you could tell it was only a matter of time until one of you cracked and made a move.  
Carmen and Mallory were understandably a bit wary when you first started to hang out with Calum regularly, considering your not so pleasant past, but they eventually came around when you made them realize he was actually a good guy. “If you start dating, we’re coming on a date with you so we can approve,” had been Carmen’s exact words, which got a giggle out of you. And, of course, you still made time for your best friends, which they were thankful for.  
Now you were just arriving at Calum’s apartment, and you rapped on the door with your knuckles a few times.   
Calum swung the door open with a smile, stepping to the side to let you in.  
“Hey,” he greeted, shutting the door behind you.  
“Hi.”  
You kicked your shoes off and followed him into his living room. You stopped in your tracks when you saw a bass lying on the couch, and a smile started to spread across your face.  
“Were you playing?” You asked, gesturing to the instrument.  
Calum blushed, picking it up and setting it back in the case that was on the floor.  
“Yeah, I was just messing around on it,” he mumbled as he locked up the case. “I was thinking about what you said at lunch that day, and you’re right. I shouldn’t give up on music all together even if I’m not pursuing it.”   
The smile on your face was full now, and you walked the rest of the way to where Calum was just standing up from the ground, holding you arms open for a hug.  
“That’s awesome, Cal,” you mumbled as he wrapped his arms around you. “I’m so happy for you.”  
He smiled into you hair, and he couldn’t help himself as he gently placed a kiss to the top of your head.   
“Thank you for making me realize it,” he murmured, pulling away from the hug. You smiled fondly at him in response, and you both plopped yourselves down on the couch. Calum reached for the remote and turned on the television.  
“Want to watch that movie we were talking about last night?” He offered, flipping to Netflix after you nodded in approval. You and Calum had spent a whole night scrolling through Netflix and made a list of all the shows and movies you wanted to watch together, and the night prior, you had been texting him about one of the movies on the list.   
Calum pressed play on the movie and you both settled in to watch.   
Throughout, you found yourself subtly scooting closer to Calum, feeling the need to sit close to him, just to be with him in anyway possible. He surprised you when he slung his arm around your shoulders and pulled you right into his side, heart skipping a beat in your chest. You gently laid your head on his shoulder, snuggling closer to him. You could barely contain your smile.  
A while later into the movie, Calum had completely stopped paying attention. He was lost in his thoughts, and his thoughts were all about the beautiful girl cuddled into him. You. He wanted you. He wanted you more than anything, and he was sick of waiting for a perfect moment.   
He wanted you to be his.  
He abruptly reached for the remote and paused the movie, causing you to look up at him in confusion and concern. You opened your mouth to ask him if everything was okay, but he spoke before you got the chance.   
“Y/N, I have to tell you something,” he said slowly, removing his arm from around your shoulders and sitting up off the back of the couch. You followed suit, heart pounding in your chest.   
You were silently praying that he was about to do what you thought he was about to do.   
“What is it?” You asked, barely above a whisper. You didn’t trust your voice to speak any louder.  
He took a deep breath, reaching for your hands that rested in your lap and encasing them in his own calloused ones.  
“I know when we first met, we got off on the wrong foot. Like, severely. It’s safe to say we both hated each other, I think. But I realize now that I was blind. My image of you was so clouded by one false impression and I couldn’t look past it. I was an asshole to you. And I was wrong. I want to say sorry for all the shitty things I said to you, for spilling my drink on you at the kick off party, for everything. But now I know you. The real you. And I see how funny, smart and sweet you are, and I admire everything about you. I admire how you stand up for yourself, how you’re not afraid to call people out for their bad behavior. I like you a lot, Y/N. I really, really like you.” He paused, his hand coming up to cup your cheek. “If you feel the same, I want more than anything to put our past behind us, the hatred and the meaningless sex, and be us.” His other hand came up to your other cheek as well. “Will you be my girlfriend?”  
Your heart was beating so loud you thought Calum could hear it. You were no doubt smiling ear to ear, hands almost trembling in your lap. His heartfelt speech made you swoon, and you were sure that you had never felt happier than you had in that moment.   
“Of course I feel the same, Calum. Yes, holy shit, yes, I want to be us.”  
A smile brighter than a big city at night spread across his face, pulling you toward him and pressing his lips to yours. You had kissed him a million times, but this was different. It wasn’t harsh or filled with desire. It was filled with fondness and care. It was soft, sweet. You were kissing out of growing love.   
Getting to that point was a rocky road, but you made it. You pushed past your differences and here you were, extremely happy together.   
It was hard, but as William Shakespeare once said, “the course of true love never did run smooth.”


End file.
